


Six Scenes of Negotiation (the Behind-the-Curtain Remix)

by circ_bamboo



Category: Eureka
Genre: Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-04 01:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circ_bamboo/pseuds/circ_bamboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not easy, but eventually Allison and Nathan and Jack become Allison-and-Nathan-and-Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six Scenes of Negotiation (the Behind-the-Curtain Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Human Error](https://archiveofourown.org/works/152019) by [arobynsung](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arobynsung/pseuds/arobynsung). 



“Wait,” Allison says. She takes a deep breath, puts a hand on Nathan’s chest, and says, “We can do this, but--” She stops, because she doesn’t know how to finish that sentence. Considers a few things to say, and finally just says, “Jack.”

Nathan blinks. “Carter? The sheriff?”

He’s being intentionally dense, she thinks; Nathan is certainly not stupid and he’d have to be, to have missed all that. She nods.

She can practically see the gears turning in his head as he considers several possibilities of what to say next and discards all of them, and echoes her single word with a word of his own. “Polyamory.”

She raises an eyebrow.

“ _Not_ equilateral,” he amends.

She nods again. “That could work.”

* * *

“What, like a--a timeshare, or something?” Jack is almost sputtering, in that way that he does, but Allison can tell that he is not uninterested. Oh, no.

“If you want to put it that way,” she says, “but I’d prefer something that made it sound like I wasn’t an inanimate object.”

“I didn’t mean--”

“I know,” she says, and puts her hand over his.

“Yeah, okay,” he says. “And I’m not expected to--” His eyes flick over to Nathan, who is staying politely out of the conversation at the moment.

“No,” she says, amused, “although it would be pleasant if the two of you could not hate each other.”

“I don’t hate him!” Jack says. “I just--I don’t know. But anyway--I think--I mean--” He shakes his head. “Okay. Yes. Let’s try this.”

She smiles, and he smiles back.

* * *

It’s not by accident that Nathan runs into Carter outside of Cafe Diem on Friday around lunchtime. “Carter,” he says.

“Stark.”

“I understand there’s a baseball game on tomorrow afternoon.”

“There’s a baseball game on pretty much every Saturday afternoon,” Carter says. He’s obviously confused.

“I understand your daughter is out of town this weekend.” Allison, also, has informed both of them that this is her weekend with Kevin and they are to _stay away_.

“Yeah,” Carter says, drawing the word out, and then finally he understands. “I’ve got the beer if you bring a pizza.”

He’s sure he and Carter can’t agree on a type of beer, but he’ll survive.

* * *

“You’re a _Yankees_ fan?” Jack is aghast. He had no idea that he was, de facto, involved with a person with such horrible tastes. “Please tell me you’re from New York City.”

“No,” Stark says, and he’s almost laughing. “My parents lived in Washington, D.C. when I was young, and I went to school in Massachusetts and California.”

“Red Sox?” Jack asks hopefully. “The As? The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? Just a little bit?”

Stark shakes his head, and Jack sighs.

* * *

Saturday beer-pizza-and-baseball (or basketball, when baseball season ends) becomes a ritual, any weekend when Nathan is available, regardless of whether Allison is around or not. It happens more often than not, and somehow, even though Carter--Jack--probably hasn’t realized it yet, they’ve become friends.

Maybe more.

They always sit on opposite ends of the couch, but one time the game Jack wants to see is in the evening, and somehow he ends up asleep with his head on a pillow in Nathan’s lap. He wakes up with a start when a particularly-loud buzzer sounds. “Oh man,” he says. “Oh, my God, I’m sorry, Nathan--I didn’t--really--”

“Calm down, Jack,” Nathan says. “I’m not offended.” He’s more amused than anything, and lets Jack sputter for a couple minutes, just because it’s funny.

“Yeah, but--” And somehow Jack manages, through the look on his face and a strange series of gestures, to communicate that somehow he’s worried about this ruining their tentative arrangement.

And Nathan gets it, not just what he means but what he didn’t say and hasn’t said, and says, “The problem with you, Carter, isn’t that you’re male; it’s that you’re annoying and you apologize for pointless things.”

It takes Jack a long moment to work through all that, probably longer than usual because he’s figured out by now that Nathan doesn’t particularly want to listen to all of his thought processes. “Oh,” he says. “Huh.”

He hesitates, and Nathan just watches him, trying to keep his face as calm as he can. “Okay,” he says, and returns his head to the pillow on Nathan’s lap.

Nathan lets out his breath slowly.

Jack reaches over his head, picks up one of Nathan’s hands, and puts it on his shoulder. “While you’re there,” he says.

Nathan heaves a dramatic sigh and digs his thumb into Jack’s trapezius, as directed.

* * *

The first time Jack voluntarily touches Nathan in public does not go unnoticed, although fortunately only by Allison. It’s only a hand on the shoulder, and Jack is fairly tactile anyway, but it speaks volumes. To her, at least.

Interesting.


End file.
